Jade Radke is a PhD student in the UBC Department of Psychology who studies how positive messaging can spark sustainable behaviour.
How do we motivate people to make more sustainable choices?
One common approach is to emphasize sacrifice: drive less, consume less, waste less. But for people who are skeptical about climate change — or simply overwhelmed by messaging focused on sacrifice and doom — that approach can backfire.
Jade Radke is exploring what psychology can bring to this challenge. A PhD student in the Behavioral Sustainability Lab, Radke tests behavioural interventions grounded in positive reinforcement and has found that messages focused on joy, connection and personal benefits are far more effective than messaging focused on guilt and deprivation.
“We already have a lot of the knowledge and technologies we need to dramatically reduce emissions,” says Radke. “The missing piece is changing behaviour at scale, and that’s what psychology is really well-suited to help with.”
Her findings could influence how climate campaigns, public policy, and environmental organizations communicate one of the defining challenges of our time.
Can you give examples of some of the behavioural interventions you are testing?
One intervention we recently examined is what we call “do-more-good” framing. We showed people the same 15 climate actions worded in two different ways: either as something positive to embrace, like “eat more plants” or as something harmful to do less of, like “eat less meat.” Across two independent experiments, people who saw the positive framing were more likely to say they’d take action and expected to feel happier doing so — with the notable exception of driving, where people preferred the idea of driving less over carpooling more. The takeaway is that a simple reframing could meaningfully shift public engagement with climate action.
You’ve also conducted research on “lottery-style” incentives for climate action. Can you tell us about that?
The idea comes from behavioural science: uncertain rewards tend to be more motivating than certain ones. We’ve tested this in two contexts so far. In a field study at two cafés on UBC’s campus, we offered patrons a chance to win a prize, such as a free coffee, for bringing a reusable cup. We’ve also applied it to beverage container recycling. Instead of a guaranteed refund of $0.10 per bottle, we offered a chance to win a larger amount, such as a 0.01% chance of winning $1,000. We tested this approach across three studies with nearly 1,000 participants in BC and Alberta.
The results were striking: the reusable cup lottery increased reusable cup use at the cafés, and the beverage container recycling studies found that people brought 47% more bottles to recycle under the probabilistic refund. Because the expected payoff is identical to the current system, it adds almost no cost to implement. Norway runs a similar program for beverage container recycling and has achieved a bottle return rate of over 96%, which suggests there’s real policy potential there.
🎧 Listen: Jade Radke talks to CBC Radio about her research on lottery-style incentives for recycling
Why is climate action a topic you have decided to devote your research and time to?
Climate action feels like the most urgent and meaningful thing I could work on. I started my undergraduate degree interested in behavioural psychology because I wanted to understand why people do what they do. The more I learned about the gap that exists between what people say they value and their day-to-day behaviour, the more I wanted to understand why that gap exists and how to close it. Climate change isn’t just an environmental crisis; it’s a human behaviour problem. If I can contribute even a small amount to finding more positive and effective ways to inspire action, that feels worthwhile to me.
“There's this pervasive assumption that living more sustainably means we need to sacrifice our personal well-being. But the evidence suggests the opposite may be true: people who engage in pro-environmental behaviour tend to report higher well-being, not lower.”
What’s one thing you’d like people to take away from your work?
I’d like people to know that climate action doesn’t have to feel like deprivation. There’s this pervasive assumption that living more sustainably means we need to sacrifice our personal well-being. But the evidence suggests the opposite may be true: people who engage in pro-environmental behaviour tend to report higher well-being, not lower.
So, the one thing I’d want people to take away is to try reframing climate action in their own mind as something they’re doing more of, rather than something they’re giving up. Eat more plants, cherish the things you already own, and build more community. These actions aren’t just good for the planet, they’re good for us too!
How can undergrads at UBC get involved in climate research?
One way for undergrads to get involved is through courses like PSYC 421: Environmental Psychology, which I TA. It’s a research-based course where students learn about the psychology of climate change and behaviour change before designing and conducting their own sustainability-focused research projects. Students gain hands-on experience developing research questions, collecting and analyzing data, and sharing their findings through UBC’s SEEDS Sustainability Program.
Jade Radke is the recipient of a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship, the President’s Academic Excellence Initiative PhD Award, and UBC’s Four-Year Doctoral and Indigenous Graduate Fellowships.
